Message from Dark Knight 13

I copied this message from my friend Dark Knight who posted this question to parents like me on Patricia Bauer's site here

How can you all so egregiously miss the satiric point of Simple Jack? It is not making fun of those with mental retardation; instead, it is satirizing the callous actors and actresses in Hollyweird that exploit those individuals and use such roles to bolster their Oscar chances and make themselves seem socially conscious. The use of words like “retard” simply emphasize the actors’ complete lack of empathy for the subject of their portrayal. If I had a child with this disability, I’d find Sean Penn’s and Rosie o’ Donnell’s “serious” movies much more offensive than Simple Jack.

Don’t boycott Tropic Thunder…instead use that Simple Jack subplot as an example to Hollywood of what you will no longer tolerate from movies about the developmentally disabled. After all, to paraphrase Jonathan Swift, the point of satire is to point out flaws in the hopes of redeeming them.

First, I don't know where to start but how about with the quote from Jonathan Swift who also said "satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own."

Jonathan Swift relied on creative genius to write his satires about political injustices and minority causes. Ben Stiller on the other hand, has relied on cheap shots using farce to exploit the "industry standard" depicting our family and friends.

In all honesty, Dark Knight 13 my friend, I don't have issues with Rosie, Dustin, Sean, Cuba or anyone who wants to take on the challenge of portraying my family and friends. More power to them. If you or anyone else thinks these actors look ridiculous doing it, well maybe you don't feel comfortable with "disability" or how it looks.

Yes, sometimes "it" looks strange. It looks "weird" to some people, too. Often times, it makes people uncomfortable. Regardless, my family and friends are not their disability. They are people first so if their humanity can be conveyed through acting somehow, more power to the acting guild.

On the other hand, if you think Rosie, Dustin, Sean, Cuba or anybody else were trying to pity, politicize, parody, or patronize our family and friends, please use a platform different then a farce-comedy directed at the illiterati, ignorami, and idioti with a movie tag line "never go full retard."

Tropic Thunder: Focusing on the Problem, Not the Solution

This movie has caused quite a stir even before it's release date.

It's a parody about the film industry and at the center is a character whose acting career is on the skids. For laughs, the movie relies on an old technique of using words and stereotypes that makes everyone laugh at the expense of people who are labeled with mental retardation disabilities. For that, one can only hope that they go easy the careers of Stiller and Black because they have stooped to an all time low on this one.

In the movie itself, there is a comedy-parody movie about the industry standard of portraying people with mental retardation disability labels. Unfortunately, Mr. Stiller does not understand that once he enters into the political arena of creating characterizations of our children that reflect negatively on their humanity he becomes part of the culture creating the barriers our children have to face each day. Furthermore, if he had an issue with Hollywood's "industry standard" then he should have used a more proactive approach rather than perpetuating the characterization with ongoing gags about "going full retard."

I heard that DreamWorks just pulled the plug on one of the website releasing this statement:

A consortium of groups including the Special Olympics and the Down Syndrome Assn. of Los Angeles first contacted the studio Friday and set up a meeting with DreamWorks CEO Stacey Snider and other senior executives to discuss their concerns about the film. That meeting is scheduled to take place this afternoon .
DreamWorks decided to pull the plug on the site Monday night as a preemptive move.

"We heard their concerns, and we understand that taken out of context, the site appeared to be insensitive to people with disabilities," DreamWorks spokesman Chip Sullivan said."

So...

... in DreamWorks reality bubble, the right context for this kind of characterization is their movie, "Tropic Thunder," a movie that claims the running gags about "retards" was not intended to be funny because "going full retard" isn't really meant to be funny. We should only be laughing if we see the satirical portrayal of "industry standard" and the actor on the big screen who is pretending to act like "retard."

So, "in context" means it is acceptable for DreamWorks to portray people with mental retardation labels as long as it's making fun of the perpetrators who help perpetuate inaccurate characterizations of our children?

Isn't that focusing on the problem, not the solution?

Either way, I still don't get how any of this is funny much less material for "the hottest movie this summer."

The ends do not justify the means.

Anytime.
Anywhere.
Anyone.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Elisabeth really enjoyed Chicago last week.

We spent a good deal of time hiking down Michigan visiting the museums, Navy Pier, and stores. Oh the many, many stores. One store Elisabeth visited was Tiffany & Company because her grandmother wanted to price one of the charm bracelets there. I told my mother, "You know what they say about Tiffany's, don't you? If you can't see the price, you probably can't afford to buy it."

Elisabeth disagreed, so in we went right about breakfast time. All six of us. Elisabeth's mother, sister, grandmother, auntie, and cousin looking more like we were hiking through Glacier Park and observing rock formations instead of the  "Million Dollar Mile."

As it turned out, the girls were fascinated with the jewelry and one can always dream, right? But halfway through the visit, Elisabeth was becoming very irritated so I headed to the restrooms three levels up to check it out.

As it turned out, Elisabeth needed the facilities and fortunately Tiffany's restrooms were more than accommodating for her needs. To be safe and spare a Tiffany shopper from embarrassment, I asked Elisabeth's eleven year old sister to stand guard at the door to prevent anyone from walking in on us.

It was taking a little longer than I expected but I overheard on the other side of the door, a woman's voice inquiring why it was necessary to guard the door. Elisabeth's younger sister responded by saying "my mom is in there with my sister and they need a little privacy. She should only be a moment." After a few moments, I overheard the woman whose patience was wearing thin I imagined asking my daughter, "How old is your sister?"

"Fourteen."

Silence.

"Oh."

I suppose this stumped the woman but she either continued to wait instead of barging in like so many people do after their curiosities get the best of them or she simply moved on because I didn't hear anything else afterward.

After Elisabeth was ready, I opened the door and found standing next to my daughter an employee wearing business attire and sporting a store manager's badge. She smiled at Elisabeth and me, helped me with the door, and went her separate way.

I couldn't imagine in a million years what was going on in that woman's mind while she was standing there and waiting to use the bathroom. A bathroom that was being guarded by an an eleven year old who offered nothing more than a simple request for her to wait because a 14 year old sister needed privacy. In Tiffany and Co.'s restroom of all places.

And this woman waited patiently giving Elisabeth the dignity and privacy she deserved not because she was a shopper at Tiffany's, not because she was disabled, but because she is a human being.